Their Fractured Light
Seventeen year old Sofia Quinn is in the holosuite at LaRoux Industries Headquarters where she's supposed to meet up with Sanjano Rao. Sofia's here for one thing and that's to hopefully gain information to help her take out the president of LaRoux for what he did to her father on Avon.She's been chasing LaRoux for a year, changing identities, moving from place to place and attempting to remove her gentag. Sofia knows that there is supposed to be a large protest today against LaRoux Industries. The hologram projects a beautiful scene, green grass dappled with brilliant sunlight and blue skies. Sofia knows the holosuite is part of Roderick LaRoux's new outreach program designed to make people forget Flynn Cormac's broadcast from Avon a year ago. Sofia is in the holosuite waiting to meet up with Sanjano Rao. Sofia notices a young man in a LaRoux uniform seated on the floor in the holosuite watching her. It appears that after doing something on his laptop the hologram crashes revealing a large upright metal ring in the middle of the room. Sofia knows this is not a projector. The boy quickly changes his top so that he looks like the others in the room as security announces that there has been a security breach originating in the holosuite. Sofia knows she has to get out of the holosuite because her gentag tattoo will reveal her as being from Avon, linking her to the protesters. As the security guards begin funneling people out of the room, Sofia desperately tries to find a way to escape. She approaches a guard and pointing to the boy, she asks him to help her fiance who has a "condition". Just at this time the boy collapses to the ground, foaming at the mouth, catching both the security and Sofia off guard. At this time the metal ring in the center of the holosuite begins to turn on. The people become quiet as they watch "little flickers of blue light" around the ring's edge. Quickly the metal ring becomes covered in blue light. With everyone distracted by what is happening Sofia and the boy begin to make their way to the unguarded emergency exit. Sofia looks back to see the center of the ring now filled with brilliant light. The people around the ring begin to collapse to the floor. In the middle of the ring, on the other side of the curtain of energy, Sofia can see the empty faces of people, their eyes black. As Gideon and Sofia race down the hallway they introduce themselves to one another, although Sofia tells Gideon her name is Alexis. For a diversion, Gideon makes the building believe there is a fire in the stairwell, hoping that people will move to the opposite side of the building. The two puzzle over what they've just seen in the holosuite. In the stairwell they run into more security who fire on them as they leave the building, wounding Gideon. Sofia manages to convince a taxi driver to take them to the Regency Towers where they abandon the cab without paying and flee to her apartment in Camelot Heights. In her apartment, Sofia mends Gideon's wounded arm and they share information about themselves. Gideon tells Sofia his name and she tells him she was at LaRoux because of her father. They discuss what happened to the metal ring with Gideon telling her that he has seen a metal ring like the one in the holosuite before. Sofia tells him she has seen people who look like those on the holosuite, people with "Eyes like darkness. People whose minds have been stolen, turning them into those...those husks." However they both hide information from each other too. Gideon doesn't tell Sofia that he was at LRI to try to track down Commander Antje Towers, the woman who helped LaRoux conceal what happened on Avon. Gideon was first involved by a request for security assistance from Lilac LaRoux. He knows that LaRoux has exported his experiments to three planets: Verona, Avon and Corinth. When she won't tell him where she's seen the people he knows that it was likely on Avon. He tells her that he knows the metal ring was on another planet but he doesn't mention that it was on Verona. When Sofia asks what it is for, Gideon does not tell her that it is a device that imprisons creatures from another dimension. He only tells her that it is a rift on Corinth. Sofia refuses Gideon's suggestion that they work together. Gideon asks her if she's heard of the Knave of Hearts and tells her that the stories she's heard are mostly not true. Sofia doesn't realize that Gideon is the Knave. In payment for fixing his arm, Gideon leaves her with a way to secretly contact him. A few days after this, Sofia is attacked in her apartment by LaRoux's men and kidnapped. But before she is taken away, she manages to get a coded message to Gideon asking her to help him. He realizes that she's been taken by LaRoux's men. He contacts his friend Mae to help him track where she's been taken. It turns out Sofia's been taken to LaRoux's headquarters where she is interrogated by his men about Gideon. She refuses to reveal what she knows so on orders from LaRoux they prepare to start up the ring and open the rift to turn her into one of the husks. Fortunately, Gideon is able to rescue Sofia and the two escape to his hidden high security den located in the slums on the lower level of Corinth. In Gideon's den, Sofia offers to work together with him although their objectives are very different. She requests that he not tell the Knave of Hearts, who has been pursuing her for months, not knowing that Gideon is the Knave. She also reveals her real name is Sofia. Sofia knows that LaRoux will not stop hunting for them since they know about the rift in LRI. She remembers the Avon Broadcast in which Flynn Cormac spoke about "creatures" they called "whispers" who are from another universe and who can affect people's minds. the creatures come from hyperspace and closing off their universe would mean destroying the ability to communicate and travel between the different planets in this universe. Gideon tells Sofia that they need to fight LaRoux and not the whispers.' "There's nothing we can do against being that can reach inside your head, but we can stop what they're being used to do. Whatever it is."' He also believes that the survivors of the Icarus encountered the "whispers" when they were stranded. While Gideon wants to remain quiet for several weeks Sofia tells him they need to act. She indicates that while at LRI she learned they intend to fix the rift within the week. This coincides with the grand opening of the Daedalus museum commemorating the Icarus tragedy, which will be attended by the planetary envoys at the peace summit. She believes that LaRoux wants to gain control of the senators in the same way he did to the people on Avon. This would allow him to control the entire galaxy. Based on the information Sofia has received both she and Gideon believe there could be a rift on board the Daedalus. Can the two of them learn to trust one another enough to stop Roderick LaRoux and save both humans and the creatures from hyperspace?